PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service to launch in Australia

Great news Sony Playstation 3 & PSP owners will be able to now enjoy hundreds of movies available to rent or own with the press of a button

Sony Computer Entertainment Australia further expanded its PlayStation entertainment offering today with the announcement of the imminent launch of the PlayStation Network video delivery service for Australia on Thursday 20th May 2010. The service, available to PlayStation 3 (PS3) users from 1AM on Thursday 20th May, allows film fans to download hundreds of movies, including the latest releases, straight to their PlayStation 3 and PSP.

Hundreds of movies will be available to rent in High Definition (HD) or Standard Definition (SD) (from AU$3.99) or purchase(from AU$7.99) in SD. The films come from major movie studios and distributors including 20th Century Fox, ContentFilm, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM), Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Walt Disney Studios, Universal, Roadshow Entertainment, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution.

Titles available at launch include Avatar, Capote, Dreamland, Inglourious Basterds, Up In The Air, Ninja Assassin, Sherlock Holmes, Surrogates and Twilight New Moon. Additional content will be added on a weekly basis.

“The launch of the PlayStation Network video delivery service in Australia this week extends the PlayStation entertainment offering and provides our consumers with another way to access and enjoy their favourite movies, whether at home or on the go,” said Michael Ephraim, Managing Director, SCE Aust.

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This looks and sounds great the price to hire movies is relatively cheap and for only $7.99 to actually own them is also worth it. Remember they are in SD but still its a great price. Lights camera ACTION !!! now where’s my popcorn ??

Just had a rude awakening about the new rent movie capability from the playstation store. Downloaded the 1st movie (around 6 gigabyte) is just over 6 hours. Tried downloading another movie on Saturday night and by Monday afternoon it was still sitting at 56% completed. This was also 6 gig and my internet speed was the same speed as the previous download @ 2.048 Mbps.

I rang Sony to advise them that the download seems to freeze (was stuck on 32% for 1 day and a half) and that I only got to watch the very begining of the movie given it froze up. I was advised that because I had started to watch the movie, and you only get 48 hours from the time you 1st start to watch the movie, that they would not give me a refund or another 48 hours from the time it finishes the download. What a Joke. If Bigpond movies sends you a dodgy DVD they will not charge you rather send you out a new one. If you download a bigpond movie and have an issue like this … they work with you to have a good customer experience. This one of the worst examples of customer service that I have seen in these times.

Needless to say that given the poor customer service and the time it takes to download a rental movie, I will not be using this service again and quite frankly I wish I had’t bought the Playstation 3 at all.